What to do between A Levels and starting university?

[redskydarknight]

(Wasn't sure which forum to put this in, but thought this might attract posters with useful ideas)

So ... DD has finished her A Levels and now has 3 months to fill before she (hopefully) starts university in September.

She is going away on holiday with us and also away with friends.
She will continue with her part time job and has also said that she will cover others' shift if needed.

I am sure there are both practical things she could/should be doing and maybe some things she can do just because she has a lot of free time and not much to fill it.

So interested to know how other DC fill the long holidays between exams and starting university?

dd is spending 3 weeks inter railing, 2 weeks staying with my sister and peoviding child care for her much younger cousins so sister and BIL can work and she's also going to volunteer at Reading festival.

She's extremely organised so probably has a pile of other plans which will be revealed un due course

If she has a part time job and friends to see and she’s going on holiday, I would leave her be - she sounds pretty sensible.

if she is wanting something to do, could she start a d of e award or something similar? Learning some new skills and I would imagine she can get a good chunk done in three months . Just a thought

My son did a mixture of playing gigs with his band, rehearsals for and performances with National Youth Music Theatre and hanging round with his mates.

Already sounds like she is doing a lot.
I would suggest enjoying some time off as well.
When I started uni (many years ago admittedly) I was sent dozens of forms to fill out over the summer.
I was also sent a book list and a list of chapters that needed to be read before I started university.
So even though I didn't have anything planned to begin with I was kept busy over the summer.

Is she going away to live at uni? If so, as someone else suggested, practising some life skills would be good to prepare her.
Work some more hours to earn some extra cash.
But other than that I’d just let her relax and have some fun. She’s worked hard and has a busy and challenging time coming up.

Dd did a cookery course. She went to somewhere called The Avenue in London which offers one and two week basic or intermediate courses. Not cheap but it has paid for itself many times over. She gained that skill of being able to put together something quick and delicious from whatever is in the fridge/cupboard. When she did the two week course it also included housekeeping, cleaning etc.

She learned to drive during her first University summer vacation. Perfectly possible with regular two hour lessons. The trick was to have a couple of lessons and then, depending on what the instructor says, book a test for the end of the summer and arrange lessons around the date you get.

I also took her on a short break. The cheapest destination on Skyscanner (Bergen -we should have looked at the weather forecast), an Air BnB and a lot of public transport and walking. A nice way to say goodbye.

This is something she needs to work out for herself.

My dc’s just rested, saw their friends.
They had quite a few things organised around their sport - week long stuff too.

But basically I don’t think there is anything she SHOULD be doing.

How She fills her time will depend on what her friends are doing, what she likes etc… She’ll have to decide that by herself. First steps to spreading her wings all on her own :)

You want to tell her that my brother graduated with a 3rd class degree and a job offer the day he graduated because he had worked since he was 16 and the employer was confident he would be able to work. He only needed the degree as it was a graduate programme but they didn’t care what the classification was. His friends who graduated with first class degrees were still unemployed 6 months - year after uni cos they had no work experience and thought they would walk into a job with just a good grade and found out the hard way that wasn’t the case!

To be clear, I'm not requiring or expecting DD to do anything. I was just interested in hearing what others did (and finding out if there was anything that she might not have thought of that might be worth considering if she had the time/inclination).

It sounds like she is already doing a lot of the stuff on here.
She unfortunately failed her driving test just before her A Levels and is trying to get a cancellation for another test (they are like gold dust here). I think the days of learning to drive and passing your test over the summer are gone (due to how difficult booking at test will be).

This week she has picked up 2 extra shifts at work and has a social activity planned every day. As she's been lucky enough to get Taylor Swift tickets for Sunday, there is apparently lots of concert prep to do :)

One of my kids ex-boyfriends was from a family that looked ok financially but couldn't afford to support him much at uni so he got a job. It paid £500 a week plus he did overtime. It was a data entry type of job but not exactly sure.
He ended up with £5k and he had at least one holiday and bought a games console. This was a few years ago too.
I don't understand why more students don't do this. Obviously I know the opportunities aren't everywhere.
A lot of students love the 'I'm a poor poor student' line but don't care enough to work.
My kids worked too although not as hard.

@redskydarknight tell her to keep trying on test my niece has managed to get a cancellation for 27/8. Fingers crossed as she needs to be able to drive for a job starting in September.

@Lotty101 - 100% agree with this.

It's a massive plus on graduate applications for the firm I work for.

Kids who have worked in retail or hospitality, through school and university, have the real life experiences of dealing with customers/the public, thinking on their feet, teamwork etc and just general hard work/putting in the hours.

Let her have the break, she’s working part-time it’s not like she’s sat doing nothing.

@redskydarknight Yes. Getting a driving test date is very difficult. My DDs did cooking at school. DD2 did Leiths basic. Very worthwhile! However most dc can work out enough by being with who’s cooking in your house. It’s pretty hard work cooking every day at uni and again, a bit of sharing with friends pays dividends.

Some of us rural folk don’t have jobs for dc paying £500 a week anywhere near! No transport in our village for a start. No driving licence and it’s a problem. Plus many don’t have a car available either, only the rich take their cars to uni! Young people can have fun and do worthwhile things too but working all hours is very difficult for lots of dc.

I'm interested in finding out more about this. Was it with a particular company? Many thanks!

@TizerorFizz
Some of us rural folk don’t have jobs for dc paying £500 a week anywhere near! No transport in our village for a start. No driving licence and it’s a problem. Plus many don’t have a car available either, only the rich take their cars to uni! Young people can have fun and do worthwhile things too but working all hours is very difficult for lots of dc.

That's why I said I understood that the opportunities are not everywhere.

One of my kids got to the final partner interview stage of one of the big four for an accountancy type grad job with no relevant work experience at all. He had done a math degree and only decided on finance after graduating. The interviewers seemed to value the fact he was working full time (up to 70 hours a week) in a coffee shop and didn't seem to mind that he hadn't had an internship. He was clearly a grafter and I thought it was good of the company to recognise it.